Identiv (INVE) Risk Analysis

We conduct operations internationally with sales in the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific regions. Our manufacturing operations and third-party contract manufacturers are located in China, Singapore, and Thailand/Southeast Asia. We also purchase certain products and key components from a limited number of sources that depend on the supply chain, including freight, to receive components, transport finished goods and deliver our products across the world. As a result, adverse global and regional economic conditions may materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Such conditions, including but not limited to inflation, tariffs, sanctions or other trade restrictions, slower growth or recession, higher interest rates and currency fluctuations, and other conditions that may impact consumer confidence and spending may adversely affect demand for our products. During fiscal years 2024 and 2023, we were impacted by adverse macroeconomic conditions including but not limited to inflation, foreign currency fluctuations, and the slowdown of economic activity around the globe. Adverse conditions included experiencing delays and reductions in customer orders, shifting supply chain availability and component shortages. Global economic conditions have also impacted our suppliers, contract manufacturers, logistics providers, and distributors, causing increases in cost of materials and higher shipping and transportation rates, which then impacted the pricing of our products. Price increases may not successfully offset cost increases or may cause us to lose market share and, in turn, may adversely impact our operations.

A significant portion of our business is conducted in foreign currencies, principally the Euro and Thai Baht. Fluctuations in the value of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar will result in currency exchange gains and losses in our reported results. If a significant portion of operating expenses are incurred in a foreign currency such as the Euro or Thai Baht, and revenues are generated in U.S. dollars, exchange rate fluctuations might have a positive or negative net financial impact on these transactions, depending on whether the value of the U.S. dollar decreases or increases compared to that currency. In addition, the valuation of current assets and liabilities that are denominated in a currency other than the functional currency can result in currency exchange gains and losses. For example, when one of our subsidiaries uses the euro as the functional currency, and this subsidiary has a receivable in U.S. dollars, a devaluation of the U.S. dollar against the euro of 10% would result in a foreign exchange loss to the reporting entity of 10% of the value of the underlying U.S. dollar receivable. We cannot predict the effect of exchange rate fluctuations upon future operating results. The effect of currency exchange rate changes may increase or decrease our costs and/or revenues in any given period, and we may experience currency losses in the future. To date, we have not adopted a hedging program to protect against the risks associated with foreign currency fluctuations.

As the RFID industry continues to grow, there has been an increase in the number of companies entering the market, including from China. Competitors have and may continue to sell products or solutions at low prices in order to gain market share, because they have lower costs than other competitors, or for other reasons. The number of contract manufacturers and the amount of manufacturing capacity has also increased significantly. If the growth of the RFID industry does not keep pace with the increased manufacturing capacity, this may result in downward pressure on pricing and reduced margins, each of which could have a serious adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We maintain manufacturing facilities in Singapore and Thailand. If any or a portion of our facilities were to suffer a disruption, shutdown or catastrophic loss due to fire, flood, earthquake, terrorism or other natural or man-made disasters, including manufacturing challenges such as equipment or IT failure, or if one of our facilities is found not to be in compliance with regulatory requirements, we may not be able to timely supply our customers. Thailand, for example, is a region with a known, and recent, history of flooding. Interruptions to production could disrupt our operations, harm our reputation, delay production and shipments, delay or reduce sales and revenue and adversely affect our ability to attract or retain our customers. In addition, any interruption in production capability could require us to make substantial capital expenditures. The disruption or loss of production in one or both of our manufacturing facilities for more than a short period of time could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity, financial position and results of operations. Any losses due to these events may not be covered by our existing insurance policies or may be subject to deductibles.

Our future success depends on our ability to continue to attract, retain, and motivate our senior management as well as qualified sales and technical personnel in the RFID industry. Competition for these employees is intense and many of our competitors may have greater name recognition and significantly greater financial resources to better compete for these employees. We have in the past, and may in the future, experience the loss of employees to our competitors. If we are unable to retain our existing personnel, or attract and retain additional qualified personnel, our growth may be limited. Our key employees are employed on an "at will" basis, meaning either we or the employee may terminate their employment with us at any time. The loss of or inability to hire or replace key technical employees could slow our product development processes and sales efforts or harm our reputation. The loss of key sales personnel puts us at risk of losing customers that may choose to follow the sales person to the new company. Also, if our stock price declines, as it has recently, it may result in difficulty attracting and retaining personnel as equity incentives generally comprise a significant portion of our employee compensation.

The market for RFID and BLE IoT devices and solutions is characterized by rapid technological developments, frequent new product introductions and evolving industry standards. To be competitive, we have to continually improve the performance, features and reliability of our products, particularly in response to competitive offerings, and quickly demonstrate the value of new products or enhancements to existing products. We believe that the principal competitive factors affecting the markets for our products include: - the extent to which products must support evolving industry standards and provide interoperability;- the extent to which products are differentiated based on technical features, quality and reliability, ease of use, and price; and - the ability to quickly develop new products and solutions to satisfy new market and customer requirements. Many of our current and potential competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, marketing, purchasing and other resources than we do. As a result, our competitors may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies or standards and to changes in customer requirements. Our competitors may also be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of products and may be able to deliver competitive products at a lower end user price. We cannot be certain that we will be able to identify, develop, manufacture, market, or support new or enhanced products successfully, if at all, or on a timely, cost effective, or repeatable basis. Our failure to develop and introduce new products successfully on a timely basis and to achieve market acceptance for such products could have a significant adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our future success will depend, in part, upon our intellectual property rights and our ability to protect these rights. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, nondisclosure agreements and other contractual provisions to establish, maintain and protect our proprietary rights. From time to time, we may be required to use litigation to protect our proprietary technology. As a result, we may incur substantial costs and we may not be successful in any such litigation. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized third parties may copy aspects of our products, obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary, or infringe upon our patents. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary and intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws in the U.S. Because many of our products are sold and a significant portion of our business is conducted outside the U.S., our exposure to intellectual property risks may be higher. Our efforts to protect our proprietary and intellectual property rights may not be adequate. Additionally, there is a risk that our competitors will independently develop similar technology or duplicate our products or design around patents or other intellectual property rights. If we are unsuccessful in protecting our intellectual property or our products or technologies are duplicated by others, our competitive position could be harmed and we could lose market share. As an example, the complexity and uncertainty of European patent laws have increased in recent years. In Europe, a new unitary patent system took effect June 1, 2023 which will significantly impact European patents, including those granted before the introduction of such a system. Under the unitary patent system, European applications have the option, upon grant of a patent, of becoming a Unitary Patent which will be subject to the jurisdiction of the Unitary Patent Court ("UPC"). As the UPC is a new court system, there is no precedent for the court, increasing the uncertainty of any litigation. Patents granted before the implementation of the UPC will have the option of opting out of the jurisdiction of the UPC and remaining as national patents in the UPC countries. Patents that remain under the jurisdiction of the UPC will be potentially vulnerable to a single UPC-based revocation challenge that, if successful, could invalidate the patent in all countries who are signatories to the UPC. We cannot predict with certainty the long-term effects of the unitary patent system and any potential changes.

We may be subject to information technology system failures and network disruptions. Despite implementation of security measures, our systems are vulnerable to damages from computer viruses, computer denial-of-service attacks, worms, and other malicious software programs or other attacks, covert introduction of malware to computers and networks, unauthorized access, including impersonation of unauthorized users, efforts to discover and exploit any security vulnerabilities or securities weaknesses, and other similar disruptions. These types of attacks have increased, in general, as more businesses implement remote working environments. Our business is also subject to break-ins, sabotage, and intentional acts of vandalism by third parties as well as intentional and unintentional acts by employees or other insiders with access privileges. Customers' network and storage applications may be subject to similar disruptions. It is often difficult to anticipate or immediately detect such incidents and the damage caused by such incidents. Data breaches and any unauthorized access or disclosure of information, employee information, or intellectual property could compromise our intellectual property, trade secrets, and other sensitive business information, any of which could result in legal action against us, exposure of our intellectual property to competitors, damages, fines, and other adverse effects. A data security breach could also lead to public exposure of personal information of employees, customers, and others. Any such theft, loss, or misuse of personal data collected, used, stored, or transferred by us to run our business could result in significantly increased security costs or costs related to defending legal claims. Cyberattacks, such as computer viruses, or other forms of cyber terrorism, may disrupt access to our network or storage applications. Such disruptions could result in delays or cancellations of customer orders or delays or interruptions in the production or shipment of products. Data security breaches involving customers could affect their financial condition and ability to continue to purchase our products. In addition, cyberattacks may cause us to incur significant remediation costs, result in product development delays, disrupt key business operations, and divert attention of management and key information technology resources. These incidents could also subject us to liability, expose us to significant expense, and cause significant harm to our reputation and our business. In addition, our technology infrastructure and systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, power loss, and telecommunications failures. To the extent that any disruption or security breach results in a loss or damage to our technology infrastructure, systems, or data or inappropriate disclosure of confidential information or sensitive or personal information, it could impede the manufacturing and shipping of products, delivery of online services, processing of transactions and reporting of financial results. It could also harm relationships with customers and other third parties and damage our brand and reputation and our business. In addition, we may be required to incur significant costs to protect against damage caused by these disruptions or security breaches in the future.

Some of our products are subject to export controls or other laws restricting the sale of our products under the laws of the U.S., the European Union ("EU") and other governments. The export regimes and the governing policies applicable to our business are subject to change. We cannot be certain that such export authorizations will be available to us or for our products in the future. In some cases, we rely upon the compliance activities of our prime contractors, and we cannot be certain they have taken or will take all measures necessary to comply with applicable export laws. If we or our prime contractor partners cannot obtain required government approvals under applicable regulations, we may not be able to sell our products in certain international jurisdictions.

We have received, and may in the future receive, notices of claims of infringement and misappropriation or misuse of other parties' proprietary rights. From time to time, we are subject to claims of third parties, possibly resulting in litigation, which could include, among other things, claims regarding infringement of the intellectual property rights of third parties, product defects, employment-related claims, and claims related to acquisitions, dispositions or restructurings. We cannot assure you that we will prevail in such actions, or that other actions alleging misappropriation or misuse by us of third-party trade secrets, alleging infringement by us of third-party patents and trademarks or challenging the validity of our patents, will not be asserted or prosecuted against us. Addressing any such claims or litigation may be time-consuming and costly, divert management resources, cause product shipment delays, require us to redesign our products, require us to accept returns of products and to write-off inventory, or result in other adverse effects to our business. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and could require us to pay significant monetary damages. We expect the likelihood of intellectual property infringement and misappropriation claims may increase as the number of products and competitors in the RFID market grows and as we increasingly incorporate third-party technology into our products. As a result of infringement claims, we could be required to license intellectual property from a third party or redesign our products. Licenses may not be offered when required or on acceptable terms. If we do obtain licenses from third parties, we may be required to pay license fees or royalties or we may be required to license some of our intellectual property to others in return for such licenses. If we are unable to obtain a license necessary for us or our third-party manufacturers to manufacture our allegedly infringing products, we could be required to suspend the manufacture of products or stop our suppliers from using processes that may infringe the rights of third parties. We may also be unsuccessful in redesigning our products. Our suppliers and customers may be subject to infringement claims based on intellectual property included in our products. We have historically agreed to indemnify our suppliers and customers for patent infringement claims relating to our products. The scope of this indemnity varies, but may, in some instances, include indemnification for damages and expenses, including attorney's fees. We may periodically engage in litigation as a result of these indemnification obligations. Our insurance policies exclude coverage for third-party claims for patent infringement.